Yonnie Collins, a 2019 graduate of the BSN program, was elected in November to the Haverhill School Committee.

Collins, who originally is from Liberia, is the first Black person elected to the committee, according to a story in the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence.

“As a member of the School Committee, Collins said she would like to see coping skills incorporated into the curriculum so that students can learn how to self-regulate and self-deescalate,” the paper wrote. “’As a nurse I’ve received a lot of training in trauma-based care,’ she said. ‘My role is to be a catalyst for change and if I can get the ball rolling that would be a great legacy to leave.’”

 In-between her education at the IHP, she received a bachelor’s in exercise physiology in 2018 and a master’s in nursing in 2023 from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She currently works as an RN at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.

Collins, who said she was among the student nurses who worked at the Boston Hope medical center during the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin her term in office January 1, 2024, and represent Haverhill’s Ward 6.